Reviews for Innocence road
Library Journal
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Detective Leanne Everhart is juggling familial and professional complications. She ha been assigned to the case of a young woman found dead in the desert, but though Leanne is convinced the woman may be part of a string of deaths of Latina women that spans years, her boss is telling her to let it go as a one-off. The subtext from the boys' club she works with is that no one cares much about a young Latina woman. The chief of police is more concerned with the overturned conviction of a young man from their community and the lawsuit that's likely to follow. Leanne's father led the team that got the confession years ago, and the chief wants his daughter front and center for the press when they come calling. As Leanne digs into the present-day murder, she finds connections that may throw all she knows into question. VERDICT Griffin's newest veers more strongly into straight mystery suspense than her last romantic suspense novel, Liar's Point, and does so with an engaging heroine and a nicely complex mystery. This stand-alone will appeal to readers of Linda Castillo and Allison Brennan.—Jane Jorgenson
Publishers Weekly
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Second-generation cop Leanne Everhart rues the day she let familial duty drag her back to stifling Madrone, Tex., in the suspenseful if somewhat wobbly latest from bestseller Griffin (Liar’s Point). Journalists descend on the Madrone Police Department after a high-profile murder conviction is overturned on the grounds of a coerced confession. Then Leanne finds a young Jane Doe dead on the outskirts of town, a case that police chief Jim McBride makes clear he wants buried in light of the ongoing media firestorm. But Leanne’s consult with forensic anthropologist Dr. Jennifer Sayers turns out to be a game changer: not only does the crime scene contain a second person’s bones, but over the past nine years, Sayers has identified remains from four other female victims with similar injuries. As Leanne scrambles to solve the case without alerting McBride—in part by wheedling favors from her ex, now with the local sheriff’s department, and her longtime friend, FBI agent Sam Carver—Griffin’s twisty tale accelerates at a satisfying clip. Unfortunately, some of the secondary characters and subplots (including one about Leanne’s drug-addicted brother) are underbaked. Still, this atmospheric page-turner starring a complex detective is engrossing enough to deserve a sequel. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Nov.)
